ColombiaDoes Injustice Cause Violence?

Abstract

From the turn of the millennium, rule of law in Colombia started waning on a daily basis. Colombia inherited a judiciary, which proved to be mostly inoperable over most of the nation's territory and legislators and judicial leaders unwilling/ineffective to/in curbing the illegal excesses of the state agents. Colombia's tortuous descent into lawlessness was the direct result of more than half a century of internal armed conflict starting from the civil war between the liberal and conservative parties that lasted from 1946–1958, a period that came to be known as “La Violencia.” Most studies have analyzed Colombia's periods of violence as distinct and unrelated events, with fundamentally different protagonists, issues, and cleavages. In addition, there has been anti-state guerrilla induced violence and para-state violence. Colombia's protracted violence and failed amnesties exposed a state grappling to protect its citizenry or to consolidate a binding and legitimate legal order throughout its national territory.